---
title: Once upon a time there lived an old King, who fell very sick, and th… — Grimm's Fairy Stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived an old King, who fell very sick, and thought he was lying upon his death-bed; so he said, "Let faithful John come to me." Who acts: old King, King, faithful John. A sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Faithful John, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Grimm's Fairy Stories, Faithful John, sentence 1

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Once upon a time there lived an old King, who fell very sick, and thought he was lying upon his death-bed; so he said, "Let faithful John come to me."

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**Who acts:** old King, King, faithful John · **What happens:** live, fall, think, lie, say, let · **To what, where:** old King, death bed, faithful John, King · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Faithful John. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old King, King, faithful John), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg11027:16:1
# text = Once upon a time there lived an old King, who fell very sick, and thought he was lying upon his death-bed; so he said, "Let faithful John come to me."
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	very	very	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	ccomp	_	_
21	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
23	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	Let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	ccomp	_	_
33	faithful	faithful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	32	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a old King |  | there | time | once *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fall** | past | a old King |  |  |  |  | sick *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | a old King *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **lie** | past · progressive | King |  |  | King's death bed |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon bed=Location |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | King |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | faithful John |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **come** *in a quote* | infinitive | faithful John *not said here* |  | King |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to i=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Grimm's Fairy Stories» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 11027 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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